The remembered future: Macedonian pop icon Toše Proeski and musical life after death

Abstract

AbstractWhen an iconic pop star dies, agency regarding that artist's persona and work is distributed in ways that transform the artist's significance and reveal much about the societies in which the artist participated. This article examines Macedonian pop singer Toše Proeski, an iconic star celebrated throughout former Yugoslavia who died in 2007 at age 26. For Macedonians and people throughout former Yugoslavia, Toše represented ideals of a moral alternative to corruption and violence, and of international recognition of Macedonia that could engender economic and political stability. The article argues that, after the death of Toše, such ideals that are distant from reality are displaced to a ‘remembered future’, a future that would have occurred had he lived. The agency of the living transforms a dead artist into a nostalgic bridge to a remembered future, producing a cathartic, if temporary, satisfaction of longings for unattainable ideals.